Rally goes ahead as McRae tribute

Colin McRae would have raced in the Perthshire event

A rally that was scheduled to include the late Colin McRae has gone ahead as a tribute to the race legend.

More than 200 drivers have been racing around the Perthshire countryside in the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally.

Organisers said they were initially going to cancel the event after Mr McRae's death in a helicopter crash earlier this month.

But his family asked them to continue with the race, which is the last round of the Scottish Rally Championship.

The 39-year-old former rally world champion died when his Squirrel aircraft plunged to the ground on 15 September near his country home in Lanark.

We are honoured to comply with that request to the best of our humble abilities Jim Brown Coltness Car Club

Also killed in the crash were his five-year-old son Johnny and family friends Ben Porcelli, six, and Graeme Duncan, 37.

The Forest Stages Rally was originally set up in 1993 with help from McRae, son of five-time British rally champion Jimmy McRae.

Jim Brown, rally manager of organiser Coltness Car Club, where McRae was a member, said the event was a "sombre occasion".

He said: "Many of the organising team have known, and have been closely involved with, Colin from schoolboy to Scottish champion, to British champion and world champion.

Personal heartache

"Our initial thoughts when the tragedy began to unfold was to cancel the event.

"Despite all their personal heartache and grief, Alison (McRae's wife) and Jimmy (McRae's father), and we suspect the wider family as well, took time to consider others, in particular the rally.

"They asked that the event go ahead as they believe that is what Colin would have wanted.

"We are honoured to comply with that request to the best of our humble abilities."

As part of the tribute, the rally took place without cars numbered 01 or 1, numbers that McRae would normally have carried.

McRae's own Ford Escort rally car was on display in Perth city centre for the rally start on Saturday morning.

A public memorial service will be held in McRae's in his home town of Lanark on Sunday.